BLACKBOARD: Oral History; Stories of the Things That Mattered, to You

Three white-haired ladies squinted at a wall of old school photos in an exhibition called ''Telling Lives'' at the New-York Historical Society. They watched a video of just-folks recounting school memories. Their faces lighted up as their own recollections were sparked, and they decided to enter the exhibition's inner sanctum, to sit before a camera, follow computer prompts and tell their own 10-minute stories.

Way back when, these three friends attended Manhattan public schools -- Julia Richman High, Public School 165, Wadleigh High. The women talked about whatever popped into their heads: one remembered facing the wall, wearing a dunce cap as punishment; another remembered the twins who delighted in mixing people up.

The women are not famous, but they're exactly the reason ''Telling Lives'' was created. The project is a way of recording stories quickly and cheaply, expanding available data about ordinary lives and the society in which they are subsumed. Intended for museums and libraries, the collective self-portrait, which in this first stage focuses on school memories, is at the nexus of education and the rest of life.

''Everybody has a story to tell,'' says Lynda B. Kaplan, vice president of the American History Workshop, a museum consulting company whose nonprofit affiliate is behind the project. ''This is a pilot for an archive,'' she says. ''Scholars, anthropologists and social scientists will be able to do research by keyword. This is the prototype for a big idea.''

They also hope the exhibition will engage museumgoers. ''Spectacular entertainment like IMAX or theme parks tends to make visitors passive,'' says Richard Rabinowitz, the company's president. ''If we develop some personally powerful association, they're more likely to be attentive.'' The workshop will collect more memories, beginning Jan. 5, at the Atlanta History Center, then at public libraries in Hartford and Los Angeles. The tour ends at the University of Toronto, where the recorded narratives will be indexed for scholars and the museum- and library-going public.

Oral history is nothing new -- it predates Homer. But that ancient lore has to do with deeds of the greats. Modern collection tends to concern itself with singular events: for example, Columbia University is collecting personal narratives of 9/11 and its aftermath. In 1994, after making ''Schindler's List,'' Steven Spielberg established a foundation to videotape and preserve testimonies of Holocaust survivors and witnesses.

''Telling Lives'' conserves ordinary life for public purposes. Future segments will focus on categories like meals and first jobs. ''It's a new way of thinking about history, in terms of who's making it and who has the authority to record it,'' says Jan Ramirez, director of the museum division of the historical society.

The collected data show -- not surprisingly, if you think about it -- a tendency to recall what is learned in school aside from academics, but with teachers still in pivotal roles. Stanley, in his 50's, recounts being an orthodox Jew at a Staten Island public school. At a first-grade assembly, he tells the camera, ''they gave out books of Christmas carols. The teacher was sensitive and talked to the class about religion, trying to be inclusive. I felt torn. I actually enjoyed hearing them, even though I would never sing them.''

Suzanne, a writer in her 40's who attended private school on Long Island, tells of being asked to write a story about Romans and early Christians: ''My story was about Romans witnessing Christians being devoured by lions, as a spectator sport. I was cheering on the killing. My point of view unnerved me. I was afraid I had written something bad. The teacher -- she was short, with red hair -- took me aside and told me I should continue writing.''

These stories are eventually to be accessible by keywords ''religion'' and ''teacher influence.'' A banquet of anecdotes are emerging worthy of an index. ''School lunch,'' for example, might look like this:

bringing your own

depriving of, as punishment

effects of scheduled time of

embarrassment about

ethnicity and exclusion at

friendships formed at

food fights at

going home for

lunchboxes, evolving styles of

portion size, peer response to

portion size, school-determined

stealing others'. LESLIE KANDELL

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A version of this article appears in print on November 9, 2003, on Page A4 of the National edition with the headline: BLACKBOARD: Oral History; Stories of the Things That Mattered, to You. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe